Zak, Isidor ArkadEvich

Zak, Isidor Arkad’Evich

Born Feb. 1 (14), 1909, in Odessa. Soviet conductor. People’s Artist of the USSR (1976). Member of the CPSU since 1940.

In 1928, Zak graduated from the Leningrad Conservatory, where he had studied conducting under N. A. Mal’ko. Between 1928 and 1937 he conducted at opera theaters in Leningrad, Vladivostok, Khabarovsk, Kuibyshev, and Dnepropetrovsk. He conducted at the opera theater in Gorky from 1937 to 1944, in L’vov from 1949 to 1951, in Alma-Ata from 1952 to 1955, and in Cheliabinsk from 1955 to 1968. He was principal conductor at the Novosibirsk Theater of Opera and Ballet from 1944 to 1949 and assumed the position again in 1968.

Zak has taken part in productions of such operas as Tchaikovsky’s The Sorceress and Rachmaninoffs The Miserly Knight in Gorky, Smetana’s Dalibor in L’vov, Brusilovskii’s Dudarai in Alma-Ata, and Smetana’s The Brandenburgers in Bohemia in Cheliabinsk. In Novosibirsk he has conducted in productions of such operas as Glinka’s Ivan Susanin and Ruslan and Liudmila, Tchaikovsky’s The Queen of Spades, and Verdi’s Aïda.

Zak received the State Prize of the USSR in 1948 and has been awarded the Order of Lenin and various medals.

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